1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to stowable headrest assemblies particularly suited for use in rear seat assemblies, and more particularly, to a stowable rear seat headrest having an active material actuator.
2. Background Art
Rear seat headrests have long been used in vehicles to provide comfort and protection to passengers; however, design considerations relating thereto have resulted in conflicting aspects. For example, with respect to driver visibility when driving in reverse, parking, and changing lanes, the size of the headrest is preferably minimized; whereas passenger comfort requires a sufficiently large support surface. As such, removable and/or stowable rear seat headrests have more recently been developed to selectively improve visibility when the rear seats are vacant and/or rearward operation is being performed, and provide a sufficient support when a passenger is present and the vehicle is operated forwardly.
However, these types of headrests present various concerns in the art. For example, manually re-installing removable headrests can become labor intensive where a large volume of passengers changes and rearward actions are taken, and can often be difficult and cumbersome to perform. As such, the likelihood of improper re-installment may increase, and the choice to forego re-installment altogether may be taken. Instead of being completely removable, some conventional rear headrests are simply moved or “reconfigured” from the driver's sightline, automatically, without physically detaching the unit from the seat. While autonomous designs provide easy on-demand stowing and deployment, they are typically motorized, which further results in various concerns, including increased bulkiness, vehicle weight, consumption of interior cabin volume, noise, complexity, and cost.